Jerome I. Case, an entrepreneur born in New York, is inducted under the popular title of the “Threshing Machine King.” By the time of his death in 1891, he had become arguably the greatest builder of threshing machines and agricultural steam engines in the world.

Case grew up in an era where the cradle and flail were the basic tools used by farmers for grain harvesting. During the 1840s harvesting tools had evolved only to crude, treadmill-powered threshing boxes. With these rudimentary tools, a strong man could barely flail out and separate eight bushels of wheat from chaff a day.

Case had the vision to invent and manufacture an improved horse-powered treadmill separator in 1844. The first Case chaff separator increased the wheat that a single man could process by hundreds of bushels a day. By 1863, the incorporated J.I. Case Company was delivering two hundred fifty machines annually. In 1876, Case was awarded the Gold Medal of Excellence at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition for his steam-powered traction engine.

The J.I. Case Company expanded continuously, first with other farm equipment and steam engines, then with internal combustion engine tractors. Today, the Case Company is still among the world’s greatest manufacturer of agricultural and construction machinery. The famous Case company trademark, an eagle standing atop a globe, remains an American farming icon.